Three Minutes
by Simple-Minded Idiot
Summary: They didn't talk to each other. They just waited for the elevator doors to open again. In all actuality, it was more onesided than anything, really. [You almost always fall in love with the person you least expected.]


It's been a while. Definitely a while. And I bring with me... er... an experimental fic. Which is partially based on what I've experienced. Perhaps you could also call this a shot at describing things other than thoughts. Though I'm not at all quite sure if I've managed to achieve that.

I do hope that you enjoy reading.

Edited the day after it was posted. Thank you to **Kaikouken** for pointing out mistakes! (Oh, good lord. A hallow-hollow pun just emerged in my mind.)

* * *

It was time to go to school again. A blond boy wearing a white button-up shirt, a loose red necktie which was untied, black pants, and black shoes stepped inside the elevator. His backpack was slung on one shoulder casually. He had a carefree air around him. His blue eyes were a bit dulled by sleep. He'd most likely wake up for real when he was seated on his chair in school. It was noisy in his classroom. It was only expected that he'd wake up then. 

He pressed the ground button and then the close button. Then the elevator began to go down. He went to one of the back corners of the elevator and leaned on the wall there. He was very much intent on dozing there – the back-and-forth tilting of his head was a proof of that. He did snooze for around a second or two before the elevator stopped again and someone walked inside.

He opened his eyes to look – he liked studying people when he had nothing to do – at the person who had just closed the doors of the elevator and had just moved to the other unoccupied back corner of the elevator. It was someone from one of those insanely expensive schools. Much, much more expensive than the school he went to despite the fact that he already went to a private school.

The newcomer, a boy, wore black shoes, black pants, an open black blazer with dark blue rims and linings, a white button-up shirt, and a dark blue necktie. He was also wearing glasses with a thin black frame. He was reading a book. He had a heavy-looking bag that looked like a much larger version of a messenger bag.

He had a pale complexion and blue-black hair. His head was bowed a bit, enabling him a better view of the book. There was this aura of regality around him. One that commanded attention and respect. Despite him having common Asian features, Naruto – for that was the name of the blond boy that had gotten first on the elevator – was sure that this brunet would get the attention of most of the people around him.

The elevator was quiet save for the occasional turning of new and white pages of the book and the constant hitting of Naruto's head on the wall behind or beside him and the quiet hum of the air passing through the elevator. There was no music at all. Nobody else went on the elevator that time. The two of them were alone.

A few moments later and the elevator door opened. The two of them went out, the dark-haired boy, still immensed in his book, exiting before Naruto. They went their separate ways. Naruto went to answer his cellphone which had rung as soon as he went out of the elevator and the brunet went out of the building.

* * *

The next time they met again was a week later. They still met in an elevator. This time, Naruto was playing some game on his cellphone and the brunet chose to merely stand in the same corner he stood in a week ago. His glasses were tucked away in the front pocket of his blazer. 

The only sounds that could be heard were the gun shots and other noises from Naruto's cellphone.

It wasn't as if anything special conspired between the two of them. How could anything special happen between the two of them if they didn't knew each other aside from the fact that they lived in the same condominium? Naruto was also pretty sure that the brunet didn't even notice him in those little elevator times between the two of them. Then again, this was only the second time they met. Why should he care anyway? That guy was just another stranger.

They parted ways soon enough.

* * *

After three days, Naruto found himself standing beside the brunet. The elevator was packed today. 

They stood shoulder to shoulder, their clothed arms touching each other. Since the sleeve of his shirt only went a few inches before his elbow, Naruto could feel the velvety feel of the brunet's blazer. It must've been comfortable to wear something like that.

The life of the real elite was something Naruto had never experienced.

The elevator wasn't all that quiet. There was a pair of young siblings going to school. They bickered a lot. There was also a woman who was cradling some fashionable red cellphone to her ear, her red manicured fingernails glinting slightly. She endlessly babbled to whoever was on the other line. There was also some noise coming from the brunet, though it might've just been because they were so close that Naruto could hear the sound of classical music emanating from the headphones, which Naruto thought looked rather cool, seated on the brunet's head and ears. It was soothing compared to the other sounds he could hear.

Naruto didn't even like classical to start with. He was more of the pop and rock guy.

But he couldn't stop humming and whistling the tune, or at least some botched version of it, he heard from those headphones. When some of his more cultured classmates heard him, they asked him where they heard that. They sure didn't peg him as the type who'd know classical. He merely shrugged. He certainly couldn't tell them that he just picked it up from some guy in the elevator. They'd think he was strange.

On another note, Rhapsody in Blue was rather addicting.

* * *

The next time Naruto saw the brunet, it was his first trimestrial exam. He had almost forgotten about the boy. 

It also seemed as if it was exam week for the other boy. He carried a much smaller bag than the one he used to carry. It was black and it was slung on his right shoulder. He had on his glasses and was also reading a book, a textbook. It looked like a World History textbook to Naruto.

Naruto pitied the other. World History was... hard.

Then again, the other looked like he could ace any test easily. There was just this I'm-so-much-better than you atmosphere around him.

On second thought, Naruto decided that he envied the other.

Some people were just born lucky.

Naruto sighed and leaned on the wall behind him, trying to run over the things he'd studied a few hours ago. It was nice to have an insomniac for a friend. Made him stay up at ungodly hours. He just couldn't figure out why he couldn't study at least three days away from exam week. He just felt studying whenever his exam was a day away.

The elevator stopped at the eighth floor. Another boy wearing the same uniform as the brunet – and was also, coincidentally, a brunet – stepped inside the elevator. This one had umber-colored hair that went past the middle of his back and was tied in a low ponytail. His eyes were a white, grayish color, too. Odd eyes, but there was some sort of appeal to them. They looked blank, though. He had a gray and khaki messenger bag. Stylish. New. And most certainly expensive.

"Uchiha-kun," the newcomer said.

The brunet reading a book looked up.

"Hyuuga-senpai, good morning," he said before he went back to reading his book.

Naruto felt out of place. Those two were from the same school and knew each other.

Well, at least he got something good out of the whole exchange. Apparently, the person that oft occupied his thoughts before – but Naruto was pretty sure that the boy was going to start occupying his thoughts again – had the surname Uchiha. Not at all a common surname.

* * *

A week had passed since then. Today was the day Naruto found out that the girl he liked, Haruno Sakura, was going out with some senior student. He was insanely depressed. It couldn't be seen by the way he acted or the way he moved. He smiled a lot, grinned like there was no tomorrow, and joked every time he could. Anyone who looked at his eyes would notice that he was sad. His eyes were a bit cloudy and he could hardly look at anyone in he eyes, too. 

When he came inside the lobby, the doors of the elevator in the middle were just about to close.

"Hey! Hey! Hold it up!" he shouted as he ran towards it. He sure didn't want to wait for five or so minutes for another elevator to show up. He'd already had a shitty day, thank you very much. He just wanted to go home, curl in his comforter, fiddle with his laptop, and then listen to some emo rock.

He thrust himself into the wall farthest from the door. The elevator shook a bit. Then the doors slowly closed.

"Floor?" a soft, baritone voice asked.

"Twentieth," Naruto said as he sighed.

There was a soft beep that resounded through the place.

"Thanks," Naruto said.

He looked at the person who'd kindly pressed his floor number for him. And, oh, wasn't it a surprise. It was the brunet that he constantly – well, it felt constantly nowadays – met in the elevators.

For the minuetest moment, his heart began to beat slightly. His shoulders and lips quivered a bit and for just a second. Hardly anyone could've spotted that he had done those things or that those things had happened to him.

But the point was that it did happen. And it was irreversable as most of the things were in the real world.

It was just like a Midsummer's Night Dream.

* * *

Around two weeks had passed. It was morning again. And Naruto and the brunet, the one with the shorter hair that Naruto frequently saw, were in their usual positions. However, the darker-haired boy was without a book or any sort of distraction this time. With determined eyes and a slight flush on his face, Naruto opened his mouth. 

"Hey there," he said. "Uchiha, right?"

The brunet faced him.

Naruto gave him the brightest grin that he could.

"I overheard your name. Anyway, I'm Uzumaki. Uzumaki Naruto!"

Uchiha quriked an eyebrow at Naruto before facing the elevator doors again.

Naruto was a saddened at that. And inside of him, there was something happening.

The _ting_ sound that was made shortly after the one-sided conversation of sorts – which was shot down even before it could be called a proper conversation – signified that they had arrived at the ground floor.

"It was nice meeting you, Uzumaki-san," the brunet said as he exited the elevator. "I'm Sasuke."

* * *

He was late that day. Naruto, that was. 

Naruto hadn't even cared that the elevator had closed on him at that timeand begun to progress upwards again. All that his mind could register that the brunet's name was Sasuke.

* * *

It was easier to fall in love with someone, a stranger even, if one's heart was hollow or broken. The heart was open. The mind was confused. The body was inviting. 

_The End._

* * *

Thank you to all who've read this until the end. 

Thank you to **Nozomi-sama** for constantly commenting about the character thought traffic. Thank you also to **redstrawberrychan** for the support of sorts that she gave to me (via El-Jay and Yahoo! Mail).

Comments (or, well, tips) will also be much appreciated. Please do comment on the grammar and such. I haven't had much time to allot for this.


End file.
